Illinois
We live in a planned community — lots of houses on postage stamps of land clustered together with a community mail room , highly convenient for the postman in our high density-hood . Despite what it sounds like , it ’ s a nice place to live and the type of place where my kids ride their bikes , play football , swim all day and when they come in for dinner , it ’ s usually with a few-friends in-tow .
We just don ’ t have any land ; no one around us does . Even the largest homes in our part of town sit on less than an acre .
Garden of Life Goes On The Road
That ’ s why I was thrilled to take my wife , three boys ( ages 11 , nine and seven ) and my daughter ( also seven ; yes , they ’ re twins ) with me when I visited our farmers in Illinois who ’ ve been growing massive amounts of organic kale and spinach for our new proteins . They invited me out to film the final harvest of the season — organic kale — in late October .
We arrived at the farm with temperatures around 50 and windy , which is cold for South Floridians . We looked like snow-people with our parkas and gloves . Our friends – the Van Drunen family who owns this farm – chuckled .
Three generations of Van Drunen family farmers greeted us . Eighty-two-year-old Ed Van Drunen told us how he took over his father ’ s farm when they grew chives and other greens to bring into Chicago by horse , on market days . Market by Jeff Brams
shoppers requested new and different greens , and Ed grew them , so the farm kept adding acres .
Ed ’ s son , Jeff Van Drunen , has an advanced science degree , but he ’ s dedicated his entire career to the family-farming business . Jeff is a mechanical genius , always seeking ways to improve . Early on , Jeff explored innovative ways to lock-in the nutrition from freshly harvested vegetables and fruits through flash-freezing immediately after harvest , drum-drying and juicing .
Jeff ’ s son , David , has worked on the family farm throughout college , starting in the “ weeding ” division and working his way through planting and harvesting . My kids went crazy for David .
Our family “ gets ” their family — their shared commitment to passing along their heritage , values and work ethic .
David , Ed and Jeff take to the field